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Posted on April 22, 2006

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Posted from Flores, Guatemala at 9:41 PM local time

On the Road

Hitch hiking and walking, remote jungle ruins, river border crossings, vehicle breakdowns (and transfers), 26 people in a van designed for 15... Finally, I'm really traveling!

I made it across the border and into Guatemala, though not without a little work. First, my departure from Palenque was a bit, well, delayed. Despite the fact that most of Mexico follows the U.S. lead in regard to daylight savings, there are several places along the eastern border paying little attention. I'd been warned of this - so the night before leaving Palenque visited the colectivo station and specifically double- and triple-checked departure times for the following morning. There was a vehicle leaving for Frontera Corozal at 6:00, so I woke up at 5 (without help from the friendly cockroaches this time) and completed the walk in the dark with a few minutes to spare. Unfortunately, 6:00 came and went without any vehicle for Frontera showing up. It was 7:00 before I finally left.

After whizzing through the jungle for two hours, my vehicle arrived at an intersection about 20 kilometers from Frontera Corozal and promptly booted the only remaining passengers: Sarah, Elsa, and me. I'd been the lone tourist aboard until we'd picked up a pair of French girls near the road to the Bonampak ruins, famous for a set of brightly-colored murals (more on this in a bit). The three of us split the cost of hiring a ride to cover the remaining distance to Frontera, and I decided to juggle my itinerary to take advantage of the bargaining potential of three people traveling downriver to the ruins of Yaxchilán. After checking into one of the two hotels in town (Nueva Alianza, a good value and very pleasant place to stay), we hired a boat and headed for the ruins.

The river trip was nice - lots of birds, an occasional crocodile, and a few gargantuan ceiba trees lining the banks of the Usumacinta River. About 40 minutes downriver, we disembarked for the ruins of Yaxchilán. Unlike Palenque, the remote location means few tourists make it to Yaxchilán. The site's resulting tranquility makes it very appealing. While the ruins themselves are not as grand or impressive as those in Palenque, I preferred the peaceful setting. Set no more than a hundred feet above the river (here's the view back down on the tourist boats), the ruins of Yaxchilán are spread across an expansive plaza. Several structures cling to the hillside to the south, the most impressive among them Edificio 33. Built during the eighth century reign of Bird Jaguar IV, the building demonstrates the roof combs for which Yaxchilán is famous. Depicted here is merely what remains; several additional layers originally topped the structure. While I have not been given a formal explanation for the curious openings of the comb, a guard at the site suggested they harnessed the wind to produce sound. (I'll have to research this later and add a note when I learn more.) Edificio 33 is reached atop a long stairway that remains mostly functional today.

The jungle is thick at the site, but there are places where the river can be spotted through the trees. Vines hang throughout (providing opportunity for Sarah to travel in Tarzan-fashion for a bit), and there are several buildings filled with bats. Howler monkeys, which I'd encountered briefly in Palenque, were plentiful, their howls shockingly loud to first-time witnesses. Though many of the site's original carvings are housed in London's British Museum, several lintel carvings remain. Note at lower right in this carving the dozen glyphs present. The ancient Mayans used hieroglyphics to record their history and important mythology. Though I don't think it's an original, there are several fascinating details present in this piece. (Here's the entire piece including explanatory glyphs.)

Back in Frontera Corozal, I began planning for the trip to Bonampak the next morning, a venture that would require several colectivos, some hitching or walking, and a taxi. At my guesthouse, I was told to visit the transport station in El Centro. After asking for help three or four times, I managed to get there. Here's the big, bad transport terminal in the center of Frontera Corozal. I had to chuckle while wandering the center of town. Like every other Mexican city and town, Frontera Corozal has its zócalo. This one simple doesn't appear to see as many visitors as some of the others. Also consistent with typical Mexican town layout, here's the adjacent "cathedral." I found a lone soccer player at the stadium nearby. Having confirmed location and departure time for my 6 a.m. colectivo the next morning, I walked back to the river where I snapped a few shots of evening bathers and women doing their laundry.

After a good night's sleep, I was up this morning in plenty of time to reach the imposing transport terminal by 6. Hoping to get to Bonampak and back in time to cross the river into Guatemala and catch the 11:00 bus to Flores, I needed the schedule to proceed smoothly. It didn't. I'm not sure whether I'm still missing something about daylight savings here, but I arrived at what I thought was 6. I bought a ticket that was stamped 6:00, but the clock on the wall indicated it was 5. I ended up waiting for an hour, taking the 6:00 shuttle at 7 a.m. Confused? Yeah, so am I. Once I reached the intersection where I needed to hitch a ride to the Bonampak entrance (from which bikes can be rented or additional transport arranged to traverse the remaining 9 kilometers), I discovered that traffic was a wee bit light. I ended up walking the 3km stretch to the entrance before hopping aboard a beat-up van to reach the ruins. (If all of this sounds crazy, consider that the archaeologists first working at Bonampak had no roads to use. Instead, they had to navigate the jungle or aim tiny aircraft into this marvel of an airstrip.)

All of that - for this. They're a little hard to make out here, as naturally there's no flash allowed (and the $300 tripod fee seemed a bit steep), but the colorful murals of Bonampak are indeed impressive. Discovered in 1946, the murals cover the walls and ceilings of three small buildings halfway up the Bonampak acropolis steps. Although painted some 1,200 years ago, the colors of the frescoes remain remarkably vivid. Themes vary in each of the buildings, but there seems to be a great deal of torture and sacrifice depicted (severed heads, squirting blood, etc.). There is a dance scene and a mural depicting consecration of an infant heir. Here are two additional panels I was able to capture reasonably well by placing my camera on the floor: Scene 1 and Scene 2. The only battle/torture scene I could get at is tough to decipher. Regardless, the Bonampak murals are worth seeing. Of all the ancient ruins I've seen across the world, I cannot recall a scene with better-preserved colors.

I won't provide all the details of my return trip to Frontera Corozal, but I didn't get back until two hours later than I'd hoped. Instead of going the cheap route (a $2 boat ride followed by a $4 bus), I shelled out the $20 to take a boat upriver to Bethel, Guatemala, ensuring I'd reach Flores by the end of the day. Passport stamped appropriately on both sides of the river, I traded my last Mexican pesos for quetzales and hopped aboard a van full of locals. The difference in roads and infrastructure was obvious on the Guatemalan side of the Usumacinta. We traveled a dusty, bumpy road for well over an hour before discovering that our rear left wheel was burning up. When the first mechanic we encountered couldn't manage a fix, the tire went back on the van - and we proceeded at about 15 miles per hour for another hour. Finally, when we reached a fairly significant town, the one remaining passenger and I (the others bailed when the burning tire was discovered) were thrust into a more road-worthy vehicle. This is where the "26 people in space for 15" comes in. The other van was packed. My offer to ride aboard the top was rejected, something I later appreciated given the brief deluge we encountered. It was a painful journey, but I was not altogether displeased. Packed in with children and grandmothers and all manner of produce (no live chickens on this ride), I was exactly where I'd hoped to be when I ventured off the "beaten path."